Blue Morpho

I have a new offering today in the beaded silk butterfly bag series.  I'm calling it Blue Morpho.  It creatively represents a female of the species, with a really yummy color gradation from the palest turquoise to a deep and rich cobalt, accented with black and white edging.

One of my sweet buyers asked some questions yesterday about the project, and I want to answer them in detail here, for everyone.

I will release the bag and bead kit together, in one listing, and here is a link for you.

First, some bag information.  This bag was produced in two sizes.  Each piece of this quilted silk fabric varies in terms on how large the quilted squares are, from under an 7/8" to 1-1/8" and multiplied by 8 squares, you can see how large a difference that makes.  It also affects how many bags can be cut from a width of fabric.

Consequently, there are 10 bags available, and seven are about 9 x 6 x 2.25" and three are 8 x 6 x 2.25".  So you can choose your preference.  These bags are essential light capacity, and comfortably hold my wallet, big cell phone, sunglasses, keys, and lip gloss.  They are really not suited for carrying much more, although I have added a little packet of tissue and some tubes of beads at various times.

The bead kit includes a spool of black One-G thread this time, and I stitched half of my sample all in black which looks no different from the side where I carefully matched colors.   Below is a snap of the assembled kit, and the entire bead list.

Then, there were some questions about the tutorial.  Like, if you already own one of the other project tutorials, so you need this one too? Again, here is a link for you.

I have tried very hard to make this project easy and painless.  I have done many samples and ripped repeatedly to get my own results, and I have tried to show you what I figured out in a simple to understand way.  Do I think you NEED each tutorial?  No, but I know for a fact that it is lots easier with these guides.  So I am putting in chunks of two pages from the tutorial for you here, so you can judge for yourself. They are .png files and a little fuzzy in this format, but you get the idea.

SO you can judge for yourself, whether you wish to purchase the $10 tutorial.  The bag is priced at $47, and the kit at $18, combining to $65, and if your purchase the tutorial, the total bag price is $75.

I don't know if I will do another series of these bags or not.  I have fabric, but I also have another interesting idea that combines fiber and beads, and may pursue it next.

Watch for a new quickie video from me, in the next blog post, and on YouTube.  I tie off really frequently when doing bead embroidery.  I know may beaders carry threads a long way across the back of their BE, but in this case, since there is no glued backing, and minimal support for the embroidery, I recommend you tie off frequently and not carry your thread more than a quarter inch.

SO, I want to show you how to tie a professional dressmakers knot, which is super fast and stable.  It also makes it really easy to remove a row or small section you might wish to change or improve, with out jeopardizing the stability of neighboring work.  A nice technique for your collection.

In the mean time, back I go, to finish off the last 4 bag linings.  I'll release these 10 kits around noon today.

Happy beading!